Press Release

Global cell culture medium market expected to exceed 7.4 billion won by 2024

Ajinomoto Genexine provides bio company response service with CELLiST series

The biopharmaceutical market is making rapid progress. According to ‘Recent Trends in Global Major Biopharmaceutical Contract Development and Manufacturing (CDMO)’ announced by the Korea Biotechnology Association, the size of the global 

pharmaceutical market as of last year was estimated at $340 billion (approximately 420 trillion won). The global 

biopharmaceutical market size in 2026 is expected to grow by 83% compared to 2020, reaching $622 billion (approximately 768 

trillion won).

Accordingly, the market for cell culture media and reagents, which are essential for the development of the biopharmaceutical industry, is also growing. The overall cell culture media and reagents market is expected to grow 148% from USD 5.032 billion in 

2019 to reach USD 7.447 billion in 2024. Cell culture medium is a nutrient growth material that promotes the growth of cell 

cultures in an incubator. To put it simply, it can be said to be food for cells that helps them grow.

The global cell culture medium market is led by global companies such as Thermo Fisher Scientific, Cytiva, MerckKGaA, and 

Lonza. In Korea, Ajinomoto Genexine, a company specializing in cell culture media, has begun to expand its market share by 

supplying the CELLiST series to domestic and foreign bio companies.

Ajinomoto Genexine is a company that manufactures, sells, and supplies cell culture media based on amino acid technology and know-how. Ajinomoto is introducing CELLiST based on its cell culture medium manufacturing technology and know-how 

accumulated over 30 years since 1987.

The CELLiST series is a product containing high-quality amino acids backed by Ajinomoto's amino acid research capabilities and 

expertise. Applicable to most CHO cell lines, including CHO-K1, CHO-S, CHO-DG44, and CHO-DXB11. It is capable of quickly 

responding to the rapidly changing bio market by meeting both excellent cell growth speed and protein production capacity.

CELLiST's unique point is that it can develop a variety of products tailored to its customers. The company provides a ‘SWITCH 

PROGRAM’ service that improves productivity and antibody quality and reduces production costs by changing cell culture media. The medium can be changed even if there is no separate charge for developing a customized cell culture medium product.

Developing a customized cell culture medium product takes six months to a year. Using existing product analysis data held by 

the Ajinomoto Genexine Research Center, we provide a total service ranging from selecting optimal media candidates to technical support required for changing cell culture media.

An official from Ajinomoto Genexine said, “We have production facilities and management systems that comply with Good 

Pharmaceutical Manufacturing and Quality Management Standards (cGMP),” and added, “We have a variety of powders ranging 

from process-specific amino acid mixtures to commercial production media and feed products according to customer requests. “We have secured a system that can produce products of this type,” he explained.

In addition, “CELLiST not only has Ajinomoto’s long-standing amino acid research capabilities and expertise, but also has a lot of experience changing media for biosimilars and new drug pipelines at home and abroad,” he said. “By domestically producing 

high-performance media containing high-quality amino acids, it is fast and stable for domestic companies.” “We will continue to 

expand our global market share based on quality and price competitiveness.”